WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony 2015 Thoughts

This article is part of #ATPW24, in aid of MIND Charity. You can help support the cause by going to www.justgiving.co.uk/acrossthepondwrestling

If WrestleMania is Christmas, that makes the Hall of Fame Ceremony Christmas Eve right? Well with Kevin Nash, Arnold Schwarznegger, Randy Savage and more going in this year, it had to be an incredible ceremony, right? This is less of a "review" of the ceremony and more a collection of thoughts.

Kevin Nash

Inductor - Shawn Michaels

Michaels induction speech was top, top, quality, exactly what you'd expect from the Heart Break Kid. Lots of laughs and some great stories about the time the two spent together on the road. Michaels talking about the reaction he had when Vince McMahon wanted to put the World title on Nash felt very real and was a fascinating story that really showed off the friendship that the two shared.

Nash got plenty of time for acceptance speech, which was honest and laced with humour. Oz is perhaps one of the worst gimmicks than anyone has ever been given, so seeing is showcased here, one more time, and getting the ridicule it deserved was satisfying. Apparently his wife is Unicorn, which knowing what I know about Kevin Nash I really wouldn't be too surprised if it was true!

Arnold Schwarznegger

Inductor - Triple H

Triple H's induction speech just oozed class, as he put over Arnold effortlessly, managing to tie his love of bodybuilding and wrestling together. The idea of Schwarznegger possibly becoming a wrestler instead of a bodybuilder is probably Vince's wet dream.

Schwarznegger came across as very humble for what he has achieved throughout his life, spending a lot of time putting Triple H and others over, which was probably the right thing to do at a wrestling Hall of Fame. His stories about his times with Bruno Sammartino are always interesting, those two would have made a formidable tag team!

Randy Savage 

Inductor - Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan's speech just didn't do it for me unfortunately. It came across as a little hollow, knowing the animosity that the two had for each at the time of each others death, I think it would have been nice for Hogan to talk about his regret for these times. Pretty generic Hogan chatter.

Savage's brother Lanny Poffo collected the award on his behalf. This was always going to be a bittersweet moment. Poffo's collection of poems added a different edge and a change of pace from the other acceptance speeches. His stories about Savage's love for the Special Olympians is genuinely touching, I wonder if WWE getting involved with the Special Olympics over the last few years was part of Poffo agreeing that Savage could go into the Hall of Fame.

Tatsunami Fujinami

Inductor - Ric Flair

Flair's induction speech was short and sweet, putting over Fujinami as the "greatest wrestler in the History of Japan". After a statement like that what else could he have said!

Fujinami's speech was kept fairly short, likely due to Fujinami's lack of English, but he still seemed to do a good enough job of saying what he wanted to say. The crowd were very respectful at this moment which was good to see.

The Bushwackers

Inductor - John Laurinaitis

Laurinaitis' speech was super quick, he put over The Bushwackers as his mentors, which was good to hear about the time when Luke and Butch were more than just a comedy babyface team in WWF.

The Bushwackers were a lot of fun during their speech. They got a chuckle out of me on more than one occassion, and they seem likely genuinelly funny guys. Getting Roddy Piper, Ted DiBiase, Bret Hart and Jim Duggan to do the classic walk was a nice touch. I also enjoyed the off the mic chats that you hear the two having, which for someone reason I found quite touching. 

Connor "The Crusher" Michalek

Inductors - Dana Warrior & Daniel Bryan

Wow, this was sad. I was an absolute mess through Dana's speech and didn't even bother writing notes, because the speech was just perfect. There's nothing else to say about it really. Just perfect. Bryan's speech about Connor was simlarly lovely. He made sure the crowd knew that this was all about how much of an inspiration Connor was and it would be difficult to argue against that point.

Steve Michalek collecting the award on Connor's behalf was heart wrenching. Nothing else can describe it really. A superb way to honour a very brave little boy with a big heart.

Alundra Blayze

Inductor - Natalya

Natalya had one of the strangest deliveries of a speech I've ever heard. She seemed to stop ever four word and then say another four words. It's clear that this was an important moment for her, and maybe it was just nerves that caused her to say her speech in rhythm?

Alundra's was a lengthy name-dropping type deal. The biggest pop it got from me was for a reference to the forgotten member of 3 Count, Evan Karagias. Having her husband back from the army for the show was lovely touch, although I'm not sure how much I enjoyed the stuff she did with the trash can. It seemed a bit like flogging a dead horse and attempting milk it at the same time.

Larry Zbyszko

Inductor - Bruno Sammartino

For a guy who spent so long on top of the wrestling business, Sammartino has absolutely no charisma. His speech about sending Zbyszko to different territories was interesting and those kind of stories always interest me. Although, attempting to put their feud of like it was legit in 2015 felt a little bit silly. Let it go, Bruno.

Zbyszko exists to annoy with his name. His speech include quotes from Sigmund Freud and Alice and Wonderland references which was novel idea. The story about how he first met Sammartino was told wonderfully and it's great story to begin with. Although I couldn't help being distracted by the fact he looks like Frank Underwood from House of Cards.

Rikishi

Inductors - The Usos

The Usos did a really good job of introducing their Dad and looked very comfortable with their speech. Perhaps one of the slickest of the entire night. Funny, endearing and kept nice and short.

Rikishi's speech was very geared towards his family, which seemed very important to him. Although the non-existent reaction when he mentioned Manu was perhaps my highlight of the entire night. It was inevitable that Kish was gonna crack out a dance, wasn't it? A nice fun way to open the ceremony.

Finally...

As Hall of Fame ceremonies go this was a rather enjoyable evening, spent with some of the greatest the industry has produced. Some great stories, some really funny and moments some heart breaking ones. It wasn't half long though!

Daily Royal Ramble #2 (25th March 2014)

Okay, there's a slight name change, but like when Antonio Cesaro became just Cesaro or Prince Iaukea became The Artist Formely Known As Prince Iaukee, it's one for the better (The second one might not be strictly true) 

Before, I get into a quick review of Raw, I'd like to go over the results of our January Match of the Month poll (You can still vote for February here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5G8ZJ87). There were a fair few matches up for this one and this is how it ended up.

1st Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan from WWE Royal Rumble - 50%

2nd Kota Ibushi vs. Prince Devitt from NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8 - 15%

3rd Chris Hero vs. Ricochet from EVOLVE 25 - 10%
= Hirooki Goto vs. Katsuyori Shibata from NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8 - 10%
= John Cena vs. Randy Orton from WWE Royal Rumble - 10%

6th Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito from NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8 - 5%

It would appear that I'm missing out by not watching New Japan with them occupying three of the six top spots here, but it's clear that the majority are also sticking with WWE as Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt's clash at WWE's Royal Rumble takes the top spot with 50%. It was a great match up that the rest of the show couldn't live up to, although it's interesting to see John Cena and Randy Orton's much maligned contest taking a place in the top six as well. 

So, I better give some kind of opinion on last night's Raw, eh? 

For me this was an episode that felt very much like WWE treading water, not much actually happened, did it? I mean beyond the final segment with Undertaker popping out of the coffin (Yeah I marked a bit for that) and battling Brock Lesnar, did anything actually go on? Everything was pretty much where it was three hours before the show started. I imagine we'll see WWE make one last push on next week's episode, which is of course the go home show for Wrestlemania XXX. 

On the whole I think I enjoyed Raw this week, I say I think because my computer ended up crashing a few times so I missed the majority of Triple H's in ring promo (Yes, it crashed for quite a while). I thoroughly enjoyed the Fatal Fourway bout between Christian, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler and Alberto Del Rio for a shot at Big E's Intercontinental Championship on this week's Main Event (even if it was revealed earlier that the winner Christian won't be appearing on the show) There were a lot of fun spots, as well as some good psychology addd with Sheamus' injured shoulder, with a clever finish playing on Christian's new heel character. I'm interested to see what the situation with Christian is, as I thought he could have potentially done a lot to help Big E in their singles contest.

There was also the celebrity appearances, kicked with Sin Cara jumping out of The Mystery Machine with a fella dressed as Scooby Doo. Really quite bizarre and surreal, and I'm sure there's many who got all upset about the use of Damien Sandow, but I honestly couldn't care less, this appearances could have been a lot lot worse. Hulk Hogan, Arnold Schwarznegger and some other fella also turned up on Raw to do something. There was a lot of back patting, which didn't really do anything for anyone, before Arnie and that other fella (even Hogan didn't know who he was) asked to enter the Andre Battle Royal, only to be interrupted by The Miz who got his ass handed to him, before Hogan chucked him out of the ring. I have no idea what the point of this was, or what it did for anyone, or whether The Miz is currently a heel or a face.

I'm still trying to get my head around the idea of having the two tag team title number one contenders lose and both get destroyed by The Shield. I understand they needed to keep The Shield looking strong, but there were plenty of other ways to do this. The tag champions weren't even on the show, which could have been used to build a quick programme between them, The Real Americans and Rybaxel. Talking of The Shield, their rumoured contest with Kane and The New Age Outlaws was confirmed, which seems nothing more than a throwaway contest to me, it won't be awful, but I can't imagine many people talking about it afterwards either. We also got the obligatory Diva's bout added to Mania, with AJ Lee set to defend against EVERY diva on the main roster, including Rosa Mendes, who is apparently still employed. Who knew? 

That's probably all I've got to say on last night's Raw....not a lot happened did it? I still dislike JBL (him calling Fandango a "heel" was just mind blowingly idiotic.) but that's a given. I expect next week's Raw to be a lot better, it's going to need to be to get that last push going with Wrestlemania just six days away.

In closing, I'd like to push you towards Marc Pearson's review of Futureshock 74 which featured Jay Lethal taking on Cyanide and Sonjay Dutt against Jack Gallagher, it's fantastic read and can be found here: http://www.acrossthepondwrestling.co.uk/2014/03/futureshock-74-review-marc-pearson.html

There is also just five days left to vote on which PPV's get watched for #ATPSunday in April at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7TSC7WL. Also there is just six days left to vote on February's Match of the Month at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5G8ZJ87

Daily Royal Ramble #1 (24th March 2014)

I wanted to bring back more content to ATPW, without having to review EVERY wrestling TV show, which let's be honest was a bit crazy! Go check out some of those reviews of random episodes of Main Event, if you wish!

So, I present to you THE DAILY ROYAL RAMBLE! I have to be entirely honest and say I have as much clue about what this will entail as you do, which probably isn't the most reassuring thing to hear in the second paragraph of a blog post. But you've stuck with me this far, so why stop now, eh? I'm like that girl you think you might like, and accidentally marry. What am I saying? You're reading a wrestling blog, you don't know what girls are. Before you come storming out of your Mother's basement, that was a joke!

As today, is Monday, that means we've got Raw just around the corner, and it's the penultimate Raw before Wrestlemania XXX, no less! So it's gonna be a good one right? We've got Arnold Schwarzenegger and some other bloke, which is all well and good, Schwarzenegger is a genuine star, whether he will pull a rating for WWE is yet to be seen, but if he's involved in the action in someway then it'll almost certainly get some outside eyes on the show. However, we'll also be seeing Scooby Doo tonight. Yeah, Scooby Doo, as in the cartoon dog. I have no idea what they are going to do or how they are going to do it, but I'm sure all wrestling fans are currently filled with a sense of dread. Personally, I hope WWE pull a WCW and cross promote a film by giving it's top star the WWE Championship. #ScoobyArquette

Outside of the celebrity appearances, I'm excited to see where the Triple H and Daniel Bryan feud will go next, with two more weeks of content, I'm not quite sure where they can go after the ass whooping Trips handed out to Bryan last week on Raw. We also have Undertaker and Brock Lesnar going "Face to Face", which with each other. I'm not a fan of the "Face to Face" things WWE has had a habit of advertising lately, seemingly they are put there when WWE can't be arsed coming up with an actual storyline and instead just chuck two guys together to cut promos and possibly brawl.

Randy Orton and Batista will no doubt do something. Hopefully we'll see Bray Wyatt in action on Raw, after seeing his Wrestlemania opponent John Cena take on Luke Harper on Smackdown. The storyline is continuing to hold my attention, especially after Cena's interview with Michael Cole on wwe.com, but it needs that last push over the next two weeks to get me completely hyped for this one. Throw in some more competitors to the Andre the Giant Battle Royal (Better known as "We can't book mid-carder rivalries anymore, so have this instead. YAY BATTLE ROYALS!") and maybe also telling us when The Real Americans and Rybaxel will get their Tag Title shots against The Usos (I wouldn't be against that happening tonight) and this has potential to be another good Raw. (Oh yeah, the divas will do something as well) 

Elsewhere in the wrestling world today, it was announced that Marty Jannetty, synomous with being the least popular member of tag teams, and last seen knocking around WWE with John Morrison and The Miz arguing over which one of them was Jannetty (who knew it was The Miz) is coming to Britain, to wrestle for Southside Wrestling Entertainment in August. Now, I may be completely out of touch as it seemed to get a pretty positive response on Facebook (at least ten people saying "YAY" or the like) but I just don't get the decision to bring him over here. I know imports can be a fairly sore subject in British Wrestling and I need to make it clear that I am not against imports at all, but they need to have a big draw factor and/or be able to wrestle a decent match (the booking is also vital as well). I'm not sure if Jannetty has either of those things. Maybe I'm wrong, and if you think the show will get a higher attendance because of Jannetty's appearance please feel free to tweet me and tell me I'm wrong (and why I'm wrong and with a solid argument), you can find us on Twitter @ATPWrestling or on Facebook.com/acrossthepondwrestling

I think that'll be all for today, I need to save stuff for the rest of the week, I suppose. So drop by tomorrow, and I'll chuck out a quick Raw review and hopefully some more random thoughts on the wrestling world for you guys.

Don't forget to get involved with all the polls we got going on at the moment as well!

4th Hall of Famer Vote: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VMM9M6H

#ATPSunday April Vote: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7TSC7WL

January 2014 Match of the Month: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5FF2KBL

February 2014 Match of the Month: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5G8ZJ87